Food World
This was a book project I did for my Individual Projects class. I wanted to create small food worlds based on mostly the food I found in my backyard, and some that I bought. I wanted all the items I used to be as natural as possible, with a few small exceptions.
To make this extra challenging and interesting for myself I also limited myself to only use a 40 mm pancake lens for these pictures. And the images was lit with a common flashlight. At the side you can see a couple “in process” images of me collecting vegetables from my garden, and from me working in the basement setting up my food world
The man on the moon...or tomato on banana...?
This is the front and back cover of my book. The banana moon with the tomato guy is the front cover, and the backside is just pure black. It was harder than it look to take this image. First everything had to be very dark around it, but the hardest part was to keep the banana hanging in the air without movement. I had to cheat with fishing line to keep it steady enough for a long exposure shot. The tomato guy also had a tendency to try to jump off the banana on worst timing, so had to stick him on a toothpick to keep him in place. (Same with the strawhat…poor tomato guy…)
I like the clean feeling of this image, and also the fact that the banana isn’t perfect. I think perfect can be boring, it is more interesting with the little personalities a browning banana has.
The Jalapeno Horses
This was my very first food world, and it took a bit to make it. In this image there are Jalapeno horses with tomato heads, purple basil bushes, regular basil, straws, grass and so on. Pretty much everything in this image is collected from our backyard.
Then I darkened out the room completely, put my camera on a tripod and used long exposure to take the picture while painting in light with a handheld flashlight. Yes, there was a lot of tries before I got a picture I was happy with.
Lime in the Alps
This was a fun little world that was pretty easy to create when I first got the idea. The hardest part was to get the “snow” to stay in place without using up all the flour in the house.the lime guy got grape feet and clove eyes and nose. The mouth was cut into the lime, but I don’t think it shows much. Then I put him on “straw skies”, planted some asparagus trees and filled up with regular all purpose flour.
I also let him “ski downhill” a bit to create the tracks and the floured up feet. Then it was just to photograph and play with my flashlights until I was happy with the result.
A grape love story
In this world I made two grapes into a couple…or two friends…or whatever you want them to be. I cut out apples to make small houses, then I put tiny LED lights inside to make them look like there was people living inside them. The grapes is walking on a rice road (mixed wild rice, actually), and I used grass and leftover vegetable cuts (top of carrots etc.) as bushes.
It took some trial and error to get the houses to be not too dark, not too bright. Timing on the exposure had to be right to make it work. It turned out OK in the end, I think, even though it wasn’t 100% how I had visualized it. But then again, it’s not often it turns out how you think, and that is OK.
Enchanted banana pepper forest...
This was a difficult one. I had an idea, but I just didn’t seem to be able to get it right. It didn’t end up the way I wanted it but oh well…I think it kind of worked. I guess sometimes you just have to stop pushing and decide to go with what you got.
I wanted a little bit spooky Halloween forest, what I got was something very different. Do make the pumpkin house look more cozy than the LED light managed, I used a single, small candlelight instead. Yeah, the basement soon smelled like pumpkin pie… I also used wild rice as road and some kale as vegetation.
Banana Pepper on a swing
This was just a fun little sidestep in my food worlds project, and the only picture taken outside in natural light. This time I didn’t really create a world, but more like putting an object into an already existing world. Simple and fun to do, and a nice little break from the basement.
Lone grape with a basket
This was just a small play on the two grapes with pumpkin houses further above. I put a basket with the little grape and imagined a lone person walking home after collecting herbs in the forest. This is what it turned out like.
The Strawberry guy
I had some fun with this guy. Creating a strawberry person was the first step, then I had to figure out what world I wanted to put him into. I decided it was time for a little lake/pond. So I found a round mirror and put it down where I wanted the pond. Then I filled up with beans and started creating the world around him. I had already decided I had to change it up a bit, I was tired of wild rice roads and pumpkin houses.
Jalapeno horses in winter landscape
After first creating this world with Jalapeno horses further up, I decided I wanted a winter landscape with them also. It was an easy change, just get a hold of some all purpose flour, and shift it over the whole landscape. I especially enjoyed how the straws looked, they really looked like trees heavy with snow! Then I changed the angle a bit to avoid the picture looking too much like the summer picture.
Pitabread house
I had some help from a friend on this one, there are a LOT of details going on here in this pretty simple looking image. Fence made out of tooth sticks, well made f beans, road from ground coffee, sawdust on the ground, house made out of pita bread with a crisp bread roof. If you look closely you can even see we made a small kitchen garden for the house. It’s not easy to see from this angle, but we even put tiny, tiny plants inside the kitchen garden.
Banana Pepper swan by the lake
I believe this was my last picture in this project, a Banana Pepper Swan, or girl? Who knows? Lets just settle with some sort of creature with skirt by the lake/pond, studying itself. This time I put a large red pepper in the back as a “house” between the broccoli houses. I then lid it up from behind with a few swipes of the flashlight during long exposure. On the ground we got carrot grass.
The very first world that started it all
At the end I’ll share a picture that was not part of this project, but the very-very start of it… Where I got the idea and courage to actually go ahead and make food worlds. This picture was created a semester or two before the food world project, and was a response to a teacher that pushed us to think outside of the box and take a jump and hope for the best. The world is made out of leftovers from juicing for the most part, some broccoli, an apple house, and in this world I also threw in a few plastic figures to really set the mood. Then I made a rainbow in the back with some multicolored lights and lid it up with flashlights and used of course long exposure. This image was the start of my food world project.
